Family Birding

No, not birding with my family. Birding for a family count rather than a species count! Way back on May 3rd (this post is slightly overdue), my Ornithology class took an end-of-the-semester field trip to Montezuma NWR to see some families of bird in the wild rather than in the museum. We also cheated a little and stopped at the Syracuse Zoo to rack the family list up higher.

We started off heading north from Ithaca, and immediately began tallying the common families as we drove - Turdidae, Columbidae, Corvidae, and other common road-visible birds. Doing some drive-by feeder birding netted more groups such as Paridae.

Turdidae

Our first real stop was one of the fields in the extensive farmland overlooking Cayuga Lake. Listening from the roadside added Icteridae, Emberizidae, Alaudidae, and others.


Our next stop to add a few waterbird families was at the north end of Cayuga Lake. Scanning from Mud Lock added Anatidae, Laridae, Phalacrocoracidae and a lingering late-spring Gaviidae. Some Accipitridae were on nest across the inlet.

I love Laridae

Accipitridae

Gaviidae

We continued north from Mud Lock to Montezuma itself, where extensive wetlands and some riparian forest gave us a real surge in family counts. Anatidae were abundant and diverse in the main wetlands complex. Scanning yielded a few unexpected Podicipedidae among them as well.

Anatidae

Podicipedidae and Anatidae

Two flavors of Anatidae
More Anatidae... enough of this family already

A stop in a grove of forest on the wildlife drive near the refuge headquarters allowed us to tally several migrant families from the car - Vireonidae and Parulidae in particular. Later on the wildlife drive we were able to find a handful of migrant Scolopacidae and Charadriidae to scan through.

Parulidae

Our final explorations of wild families involved the wetlands complexes located north of the main refuge. Here we psshd up a Polioptilidae, called in several Rallidae, observed Hirundinidae at close range, but failed to pick up the single pair of Gruidae that have nested at the refuge for several years running.

Glenn pointing of the Polioptilidae

Hirundinidae

Rallidae

I don't remember the exact tally by the time we left Montezuma to drive to the Syracuse Zoo, but it was somewhere around 25 or 30 families, and we even tallied more on the drive - Apodidae over one of the towns. The Syracuse Zoo was very kind to our family list with many families difficult or impossible to find in New York. We even continued wild birding at the park, adding species of Parulidae and a new family, Tyrannidae, calling and foraging in the woods at the zoo. Their big walk-in aviary was a real treat, as was our behind-the-scenes tour of their large Spheniscidae exhibit. Here you'll see my bad photography get even worse, as the lighting and photographic opportunities were less than ideal.

Our first stop was the walk-in aviary. This huge, warm, humid room was chock full of the strangest assemblage of bird families that you would never expect to see together - Cardinalids perched with Irenids, Momotids, Muscicapids, and Threskiornithids calling, and more.

Threskiornithidae

Phasianidae

Irenidae and a Thraupid
Irenidae

My favorite Sternidae

Some nice Columbidae
Tired of Anatidae yet?
Timaliidae

Recurvirostridae
Momotidae
Muscicapidae
Rhamphastidae
Sturnidae

Thraupidae

Moving outdoors, there are various isolated bird exhibits with various families. These exhibits aren't particularly well done, resulting in a lot of bird families behind bars:

Cathartidae

Strigidae
Alcedinidae

Corvidae

Falconidae

Psittacidae
Various Phasianids

Waterbirds are a constant presence on the zoo grounds, with one big exhibit featuring mixed Anatids and other Anatidae scattered around in the watering holes of other exhibits.

Anatidae represents

An Anatid awaits spillage from feeding Phoenicopteridae

Anatidae courtship display

Two male Anatids engaging in courtship-like behaviors

Other indoor exhibits at the Syracuse Zoo allowed me to tally a few interesting non-avian families.

Two Emydids

Testudinidae

Amiidae

The final portion of our zoo trip was a tour behind the scenes of the large Spheniscidae exhibit featuring a young nestling.

Finally, here is our great leader Wink. It was a fantastic experience to TA with him.


Total: 52 families

Phasianidae
Anatidae
Spheniscidae
Gaviidae
Podicipedidae
Phoenicopteridae
Threskiornithidae
Ardeidae
Phalacrocoracidae
Cathartidae
Falconidae
Pandionidae
Accipitridae
Rallidae
Recurvirostridae
Charadriidae
Scolopacidae
Laridae
Sternidae
Columbidae
Psittacidae
Tytonidae
Strigidae
Apodidae
Alcedinidae
Momotidae
Ramphastidae
Picidae
Tyrannidae
Vireonidae
Corvidae
Paridae
Hirundinidae
Alaudidae
Timaliidae
Irenidae
Troglodytidae
Polioptilidae
Sittidae
Certhiidae
Mimidae
Sturnidae
Turdidae
Muscicapidae
Passeridae
Motacillidae
Fringillidae
Parulidae
Icteridae
Emberizidae
Thraupidae
Cardinalidae